In praise of rotten boroughs

Democracy is inconvenient and there are moves to tidy it away, one of them being to reduce the number of MPs from 650 t0 585, with the following result (using size of electorate as at 1 December 2010):


Imagine that the constituency in which you live is a vast coach, and the MP your driver. What chance is there that you will go to the destination of your choice? Especially when the front rows are filled with lobbyists, Whips and others with much louder voices than yours.

Whereas in the General Election of 1831, 152 out of 406 MPs were chosen by fewer than 100 voters. Gatton (Surrey) and Old Sarum (Wiltshire) each had only 7 electors and each sent 2 members to the House of Commons. At least you'd have got a drink out of them once every few years.

AV means the driver might just hear a little chorus from the back, above the commercial and cliquey hubbub roaring just behind him.